


The joker effect

by orphan_account



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Gotham - Fandom
Genre: ArkhamVerse, Fan Comics, Gen, Joker orgins AU, Origins, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 14:49:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13460517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: All it takes is one bad day...but what if the joker had turned out different?





	The joker effect

Lord knows he had to try. He didn’t want to do this, as wrongful as it was, but he had to try. His family needed him to try. 

Jerome shook his head as he ruffled on the black ski mask. He material slid over his face easily, but itched greatly against his blond scalp. Just wearing it felt wrong, but this was a crime he had to commit. A sacrifice for the greater good, he told himself. He needed the money. It was inescapable. One way or another he’d have to face the consequences.

Coming from a back ground of an abusive family, he ran away from home with his girlfriend, and only months after they decided the relationship just wouldn’t work, she wound up pregnant. Deciding to pull their relationship together, he stayed to support her and their baby. 

But having no money, no house, and no food, they were left with the only option to return their abusive home. Drugs were now the only answer of coping for his parents and money was being spent faster than you could blink. So now every night he went out stealing.

From the back of his dad’s old truck, he gave a small worried laugh. It earned a few stares from the other two masked men sitting across. Through the dark the truck continued to drive down the street, his two older cousins up seat in the drivers. His real dad would never know he did this, but who knows if he’s be ashamed or uncaring. His son had turned into a no good money stealing drug dealing loony. But Jerome still had morals, still wanting to consider himself a good guy.

Little did the know all the would change as the night went on. Half way through the robbery

Jerome Jerome got had almost got caught by the police and left behind a bag of money by accident during his escape. 

When he got home, his cousins ratted him out and his “fake” dad scolded him, knocking a vase onto his head and leaving him almost unconscious on the floor as he continued to receive a beating. When his girlfriend tired to pull him off, she was plunged to the floor, losing both the baby and her life. When Jerome finally managed to pull a gun, he shot a bullet to his parents. His cousins, both left the scene just after neighbors reported police. 

Jerome was blamed for killing his girlfriend though his father managed to survive the accident his mother didn’t. For the next few months he’d be lying wide awake in a prison cell, listening to the screams of his dead girlfriend call in his head and insisting that he wasn’t crazy. But the GCPD had their doubts. After trying to pull a knife on himself and biting one of the officers, he was transferred to Arkham.

The first night seemed of endless terror and torcture. But his time, as he laid under the covers of his bed, he didn’t cry or stare endlessly at the ceiling. He didn’t hear his girlfriends voice, nor even the sounds of the other inmates creating ruckus…he closed his eyes to get what seemed to be the first and almost peaceful night’s sleep he had received since.

But somewhere around two or three hours later, he awoke to the sight of someone sitting on the opposite end of his bed. Gasping, he flings off the covers and backs up to the wall. 

“Am I dead?” He mouths to the figure, his face painted with shock.

“No.” The figure replies cooly. “But don’t scream. They’ll think even worse of you.”Jerome takes a breath, then through the dark of the room, kicks out his sheets and pounds the figure with his pillow. Angerliy, he swears and pins him down with the pillow, mushing it into his face.

With muffled cries, the figure struggles. 

“NO!” Another voice spills into the room. Stop it, you’ll wake the gaur-“ Jerome, spinning around to the voice, catches a figure standing behind him and smacks him right across the face. Blood drips from what appears to the same freckled face of himself as the figure slowly looks up. "You.” His eyes nearly water.“ You HIT ME!”

From underneath the pillow a smirking laugh quiets the two. “Idiot!” The figure knocks back a blow, kicking Jerome in the groin. Falling to the floor, Jerome gasps and curls in a ball of pain. Standing over his sides now, are the two figures.  
“You shouldn’t have done that.”

  
From outside the room, lights flicker on and just as Jerome scurries to his feet, the door opens. In walking the night guards and heading over to his direction. Prying him away from the corner of the bed and wall, Jerome is instantly dragged away from his room in a fit. “NO.” He cries. “Stop, no, stop!”


End file.
